Eva Marie L. (babyjulie) - , reviewed on 12/2/2010 + 336 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

I'd love to meet this guy and shake his hand. I'm not a cryer... no real reason, I just don't "do" crying from books or movies.... usually. I teared up numerous times while reading this.
Putney managed to make me feel like I knew each dog he wrote about. His love for this animals shone like a beacon and that goes right to the heart of any animal lover.
I wish I could say that I'd recommend this to anyone but I wouldn't. Almost, but not quite. I think a love of the military or interest in WWII or war in general would be needed. My interest in that war is fairly specific and my areas of interest aren't even mentioned here so I also can't say that it's definite.
Putney writes a lot of manuevers, Guam, the bases he and his soldiers were stationed, etc. Basically, things that probably wouldn't interest the average reading looking for a "dog book". But if you can like the "non-dog" parts, or even somehow get through them, to those "dog" sections - you won't be sorry.
The pictures, I don't know what to even say about them. Stunning, they were all simply stunning. Putney and some of his men went through so much to give these dogs adequate care during their time in service and what he did for their memory is just out of this world. So many people would have walked away. Instead, much like when we went to war, he walked right into the storm. Not once, not twice, but over and over again and for these dogs no less.
Putney is obviously an honest person. There are a few small tidbits in the story that get that across to the reader quickly, things that maybe you or I would have conveniently left out.
The reader gets to know his soldiers as well as the dogs and I was grateful for that. These will little more than children. And as we all know, so many never came home. When I stop to think about all of the lives saved because of this brave animals it really is earth-shattering. Without these animals whole groups of lives would have been lost. The fact alone that these animals could learn all that they did and do all that they did is nothing short of amazing. I am a true dog lover and would be the first to say how smart these animals are. My Labs knows words they were never even "taught" - words they just picked up throughout their lives. Actions they just picked up. But the things I found that they learned really stopped me in my tracks and made me think.
It hurt my heart deeply to know that this country, who had so easily used these beautiful animals for their own good, destroyed (and this IS the correct word for it - they were destroyed) these heroic dogs on their return. Why? Because they assumed they could not be completely detrained and live a civilian life. When Putney learned of this he didn't just talk, he acted. And he turned the entire thing around and began detraining the very dogs that "couldn't" be detrained. Only 4 dogs out of 559 couldn't be detrained. Less than 1%. So many beautiful heros lost their lives, after saving their humans lives, all because of stupid people. There had been, at the time this was written, no cases of a retired miliatary dog from the war dogs detrained by Putney biting a person or otherwise being a nuisance.
It's hard to read in a lot of places. The love these men had for their dogs, for their best friends comes through in everything you read. One handler saw his dog fall down, dead before he hit the ground from a Japanese bullet and, while still under fire, tried to go get his best friend. Putney held him back until it was safe to get him. I just can't imagine it.
This is so worth reading, so, so worth reading if you're at all interested. William W. Putney is an amazing man.

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